


As The Walls Came Tumbling Down

by StealtheRest



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:42:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27780964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StealtheRest/pseuds/StealtheRest
Summary: Josh and Donna handle Mrs. Landingham's death. They realize they handle everything best together.
Relationships: Josh Lyman/Donna Moss
Comments: 9
Kudos: 50





	As The Walls Came Tumbling Down

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of a mess but I hope you enjoy!

He stumbled into his office and an ungodly hour, only minimally surprised to find Donna still there. 

“You didn’t go home?” 

Donna looked up at him from the visitors chair she was sitting in. 

“Leo called you into his office. It sounded important. I figured there was more work to do.” 

Josh stared at her for a moment. His mouth slightly open and his eyes wide. 

“Donna, I uh-“ he took a breath and ran his hand over his face. “Something happened.” 

Josh pulled the second visitors chair out so he could sit down on it and angled it towards her.

“Donna, Mrs. Landingham was in a car accident tonight. She died.” 

Donna’s eyes went wide. Her voice came out so young and so innocent. “What are you- I don’t understand. I just saw her.”

“I’m so sorry, Donna.”

Mrs. Landingham. The woman who took her under her wing when she was a bright-eyed young woman and still not entirely sure how she ended up working in the White House. Mrs. Landingham. Who baked cookies for the staff. Whose sons had both died in war and she still found a way to wake up every morning and help serve her country. Mrs. Landingham. Who held her hand as she sat in a hospital waiting room while the world shattered around her. Mrs. Landingham. Who never questioned Donna’s loyalty to the job, to Josh.

Donna started to cry. 

Her hand came up to cover her face while her other one clutched at the arm of the chair as she sobbed. 

Donna didn’t notice Josh stand up and close the door. She didn’t notice him crouch down in front of her until her gathered her into his arms. Josh stood them both up and held the back of her head to the crook of his neck as he stroked her hair. Donna’s arms were wrapped around his chest clutching him, hard. 

“I’m so sorry, Donna. I’m so sorry.” He whispered.

They didn’t normally hug like this. 

———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-

Josh wasn’t thinking about optics or the MS scandal or what any of this means when he walked her up the steps to her apartment and followed her inside. He just knew he didn’t want her to be alone. If he was being honest, he didn’t want to be alone either. 

He wasn’t thinking when he helped her hang up her coat and decided then that he wasn’t going to leave her to be alone with her thoughts for the night. 

Neither of them spoke when Donna turned towards him and wrapped her arms around him. Josh rubbed his hands up and down her back, slightly swaying them. 

For the first time since they arrived at her apartment, she spoke. “How’s the President doing?”

“I don’t know,” Josh replied, a slight rasp to his voice. “I didn’t see him tonight.” 

She started making herself some tea when she noticed he wasn’t leaving. 

“You don’t have to stay, Josh.”

“I uh- I know.”

He didn’t make to leave.

“Can I?” He asked. 

“Can you what?”

“Can I stay?”

She smiled as she walked over to the couch, cup of tea in hand. 

He took the worlds invitation to stay as he sat down next to her. 

He wasn’t sure why he decided in that moment to open his arm and wrapped her against his chest. 

Donna tucked her face into his neck.

A calming silence fell over the two of them until Donna spoke in a quiet voice. “The shooting, the MS, Mrs. Landingham,” she sighed, “everything feels so unsteady right now.” 

“I know,” Josh agreed. He started soothingly rubbing her back again. 

For some reason, maybe because he realized how close he had come only a few months ago to losing his life, and losing her, maybe because they were both grief stricken and so very tired, that he lost the resolve he had built up and actually spoke the words that had been tumbling around in his head.

“This feels steady though, right?”

Donna lifted her head and looked at him. “It does,”

“I think -“ Josh took a breath. “I think we should talk to Leo about a promotion.”

Donna went still.

“You deserve to do more Donna. You’re so talented and smart and, god, you could be doing so much more.” 

He didn’t look at her as he continued to speak. 

“There’s an opening in CJ’s office. Carol’s been offered a promotion and CJ is thinking of promoting from within her staff for Carol’s position. But she needs a deputy. I think you would be perfect for it.” 

“Josh,” she whispered.

“This isn’t because you’re here, and we’re doing well I don’t know what we’re doing but this isn’t because of that. You have to know how capable you are an how worthy you are of-“

“Josh,” she whispered again, only this time with a hint of amusement in her voice.

“You really think I could do this?” 

“I know you could.”

“Why now?” She asked. 

“Donna, you said it yourself. Mrs. Landingham died. I was shot. We don’t know what’s going to happen with the President. There’s so much uncertainty and you should be reaching your full potential. I don’t want to hold you back.”

“You’re not holding me back Josh. You’ve given me so many opportunities, hell you hired me after you found me answering your phone in your office. You haven’t held me back.”

He looked over at her and held her just a little bit tighter. 

“Besides,” she continued, “I don’t think bosses normally cuddle with their assistants.” 

He laughed. 

“I want to take the job,” she said. 

He nodded his head. “I think you should. 

“Josh.”

“Yeah.”

“This means you aren’t going to be my boss anymore.”

He sighed, “yeah.” 

“That means we don’t have to stop cuddling right?”

He laughed, lifting her up onto his lap and hugging her tightly. 

“No, we definitely don’t.”

“We should probably talk about this too,” she mumbled into Josh’s neck. 

“Yeah. Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.”

She pulled herself off the couch and took Josh into her room. Donna collapsed into bed with Josh right behind her. She laid her head in the crook of his neck, sighing contently.   
These next few months would be rough, they both knew it. They’d be faced with challenges, both legal and political. The administration would be tested. But Josh and Donna together, they would hold strong.


End file.
